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Politics > Component 2 - Uk Politics - Parliament > Flashcards

Component 2 - Uk Politics - Parliament Flashcards

1
Q

Backbenchers

A
  • Don’t hold office in government but are members of local councils and it behind the front benchers
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2
Q

Frontbenchers

A
  • Invited to Parliament by the PM to join the government often senior ministers and secretaries
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3
Q

Parliamentary Privileges

A
  • Grant certainly legal immunity to members of both houses to help them perform their duties without interference from outside of the houses
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4
Q

Whip

A

Maintains party discipline

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5
Q

Mace

A
  • A golden mate needed to start a debate
  • Ceremonial feature
  • Can be used to end the debate if it is becoming too heated
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6
Q

Features of the House of Commons

A
  • On the left the sit
  • A mace used to start debate
  • room for 430 MPS
  • Speaker of the house is that keep order and invite and piece to speak
  • Prime Ministeris the dispatcher
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7
Q

What is the role of the speaker of the house?

A
  • Maintain ordering the comments
  • Get MPs to follow rules like not naming people
  • must remain impartial
  • Must remain transparent
  • Can expel people from the house to maintain order
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8
Q

What are urgent questions?

A
  • Question of an urgent character and relates to matters of public importance
  • allows MPs not in government ask questions of ministers without giving notice
  • To ask a question it must be presented to the speaker first and he will decide if it will be allowed
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9
Q

Hereditary peer

A
  • The right to sit in the House of Lords is because their family was in the House of Lords
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10
Q

Life peer

A
  • Added to the house by their Prime Minister because of services to the nation
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11
Q

Peer

A
  • Appointed the house for no reason
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12
Q

Crossbenchers

A
  • A minor party or independent member of the House of Lords
  • They sit perpendicular to the government and opposition benches
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13
Q

Features of the House of Lords

A
  • Opposition party sits on the left
  • bishops have a place to sit
  • On the right pairs who are in the majority party sit
  • When voting a bell rings and they only have eight minutes
  • 805 members of the House of Lords
  • The House of Lords is not democratic
  • They are not bound by party manifesto
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14
Q

Function of the House of Lords

A
  • Debate - legislation and current issues
  • Scrutiny and accountability
  • Legislation - revisions of bills
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15
Q

Five functions of parliament

A
  • Legislation
  • Scrutiny and accountability
  • Recruitment of ministers
  • Debate
  • Representation
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16
Q

Parliamentary scrutiny

A
  • Close examination and investigation of government policy actions and spending
  • An essential function which requires minister to justify and explain their actions
17
Q

Prime Minister’s questions

A
  • Were the leader of the opposition and third largest party and back benches are allowed to ask questions on Wednesdays at noon
18
Q

Accountability

A
  • The process of monitoring elected officials
19
Q

Question time

A
  • ministers of government departments get asked questions on a rotata
20
Q

The opposition

A
  • The largest party in the House of Commons that is not in government
21
Q

Opposition

A
  • The parties and people who are not members of governing parties
22
Q

Select committees

A
  • A committee responsible for scrutinising the work of government or government department
  • Carried out by the House of Commons committee or the House of Lords committees
  • ## Composition of committee is reflected by majorities in government
23
Q

How effective is parliamentary questions?

A

Effective
- Opposition and those outside of government can ask questions
- televised so encourages political awareness
Ineffective
- More of a public show than scrutiny
- questions can be asked by whips to flatter rather than probe
- Only half an hour, not enough time
- Disordered

24
Q

How effective is select committee scrutiny?

A

Effective
- Committee chairs selected by an anonymous vote
- Request documents, others can’t
- Can put together unanimous committee reports to be shown to the government
Ineffective
- Internally selected
- Committees choose what does scrutinise
- Request for information can be denied
- Government does not have to act on committee suggestions

25
Q

10 core tasks of select committees

A
  • strategy
  • Policy
  • Expenditure and performance
  • Draft bills
  • Bills and delegated legislation
  • Post legislative scrutiny
  • european scrutiny
  • Appointment
  • Support for the house
  • Public engagement
26
Q

Redress of grievances

A
  • MPs don’t have enough time to respond to all their constituents issues
27
Q

Bicameral Parliament

A

Made up of two parts/chambers: the House of Commons and Lords

28
Q

Treasury Benches and Opposition Benches

A

Treasury Benches: where the PM, his cabinets and backbenchers sit.
Opposition Benches: where the non-government MPs, leader of the opposition and shadow cabinet sit

29
Q

How effective is the process of legislation in the House Commons?

A

Effective
- Commons can stop legislation (Eg, Theresa May’s difficulty passing Brexit legislation)
- Commons can significantly amend legislation
Ineffective
- Usually a majority in the Commons so legislation is rarely defeated
(Eg, Blair didn’t lose a vote between 1997-2005)
- Commons have the final say
- Royal assent is a ceremonial practise
- Whips control party votes

30
Q

How effective is debate in the House of Commons?

A

Effective
- The Wright reforms have given more power to the Backbenchers to influence parliament
- Increase in the number of debates on pressing and current issues
- E-petitions can now be discussed if they gain 100,000 signatures
- Regular debates at the end of each day for 40 min
Ineffective
- Debating is time limited
- Whips mean often only the party line is heard
- Poor attendance of debates
- Smaller parties can be neglected

31
Q

How effective is representation in the Commons?

A

Effective
- MPs raise constituent concerns through oral and written questions
- Private members bills and adjournment debates can be used to raise concerns
- MPs hold meetings/surgeries with members of their constituencies
- Parliament is becoming more representative

Ineffective
- Vote for party rather then representative
- FPTP system means some are elected with less than half of the votes
- Parliament is not representative of society (only 220 out of 650 MPs were women in 2019 - highest every
- Only 50% of MPs went to state schools

32
Q

The Legislative Process

A
  • The Queens Speech
  • First Reading
  • Second Reading
  • Committee stage
  • Repot stage
  • Third reading stage
  • The Lords (process repeated)
  • Royal Assent

12CR3

33
Q

4 Powers of the Commons

A
  • Initiate, amend and (veto) reject legislation
  • Reject legislation from governing parties manifestos
  • Government budge is subject to approval by the Commons
  • Government can dismiss a government. Vote of no confidence
34
Q

Lord Spiritual

A

Senior clergy from the Church of England and their membership is fixed at 26 members

35
Q

Powers of the House of Lords (3)

A
  • Delay legislation for up to one year - they have no veto
  • Amend legislation (parliamentary ping-pong)
  • Scrutinise the executive through select committees
36
Q

Salisbury convention

A

Lords could not obstruct measures set out in Governemnt manifestos only recommend reasoned amendments

37
Q

How effective is legislative processes in the House of Lords?

A

Effective
- Legislation is more easily defeated in the lords as their is less of a clear majority
- Lords more likely to rebel against whips
Crossbenchers mean the outcome is less predictable
Ineffective
- Has no legislative veto
- Delay of legislation can be over-ruled
- Salisbury Convention

38
Q

How effective is debate in the House of Lords?

A

Effective
- More time can be spent on debate
- Peers are experts in particular fields
- Quality of debate is higher than in the Commons
Ineffective
- Long debates sometimes result in little achieved
- Poor attendance
- Some only debate what they are interested in

39
Q

How effective is scrutiny/accountability in the House of Lords?

A

Effective
- High levels of expertise can lead to forensic and detailed questioning
- Allowed to pick areas to scrutinise
- More time to scrutinise
Ineffective
- Only junior ministers are held to account
- Who scrutinises the Lords?
- Areas of scrutiny can be picked by the Lords

Politics (2 decks)

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